Those were the days. It is alas impossible for us today to experience the world view and internal mental states of these early polymaths. They were swimming in

Those were the days. It is alas impossible for us today to experience the world view and internal mental states of these early polymaths. They were swimming in (and pressumably got very excited from) a sense of explainable and actionable magic where a combination of rational thinking and the use of various artifacts revealed the inner workings of the universe. That mix of the scientific and magical lasted quite a bit longer (famously Newton was an alchemist). Today the extreme specialization and sophistication of scientific silos means the excitement of "probing the universe" has become very remote. When looking around we assume (and it is generally true) that practically anything that happens fits in a neat scientific bucket that somebody is on top of.